How Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman rose to power in Saudi Arabia

Mohammed bin Salman (known across the world by his initials, MBS) is the de-facto leader of Saudi Arabia. His father, King Salman, is 84 and not in the best of health. MBS, who is currently 34, has consolidated his power over the last few years.

He’s been contradictory. He allowed women to drive. But he also locked up his own mother, preventing her from seeing her husband, the king. He brought movies and popular music to the kingdom, but silenced dissidents. And he allegedly orchestrated the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Ben Hubbard writes about the man in line to rule Saudi Arabia for the next half-century in his book called “MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman.”

Introduction

By the time the young prince who was running the Arab world’s richest country was due to speak, a standing-room-only crowd of international investors, businessmen, millionaires, and billionaires had packed a luxurious hall under massive crystal chandeliers to await his appearance. It was fall 2017, and all had come to Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, for a lavish investment conference that had unofficially been dubbed “Davos in the Desert” to give it the same ring of exclusivity and consequence as the annual meet-up of global powerbrokers in the Swiss Alps. This conference, however, had a different goal: to convince the assembled moneymen that the time was now to bet big on Saudi Arabia.

Excerpted from MBS by Ben Hubbard. Copyright © 2020 by Ben Hubbard. Excerpted by permission of Crown. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.